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Guest Blog: Sarah Beach on The Metaphysics of Creativity

Colleen Doran — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:13:39 +0000

THE METAPHYSICS OF CREATIVITY About a month ago on another website, there was a discussion about fanfiction and professional writing, and the distinctions between them. Some of the posters contended that it was a matter of the quality of the writing, in terms of craftsmanship. Me, I think that’s a mistake. Some professional writers can be sloppy craftsmen, while some fanfic writers have exceptional talent. Colleen and I (we’d both followed the discussion there) continued a conversation spun from this discussion. Our conversation led into other territory, and it seemed to me it would make an interesting guest blog topic. So, here’s some wandering on where my thoughts went. Professionalism in creative arts certainly begins with craftsmanship. The fanfic writer might not be concerned with that aspect of writing, but anyone with professional aspirations ought to be. But the true distinction is not in the craftsmanship itself – whether in writing or art or music or acting or any of the creative activities. What is the true key lies in the creator’s passion for his or her work. The effect of the creator’s passion is difficult to describe. It seems ephemeral. Yet, everyone gets a feeling of “This is right” or “This is wrong.” Something gets communicated, something extra. I’ve occasionally called this effect “frozen telepathy.” What I mean by that is that some inner passion the creator has for the story, the characters or whatever, gets caught in the finished work and the audience can see it, receive it. For actors, it is perhaps most obvious – there are some actors who can take you all the way inside their characters, so that even though the character “isn’t showing anything,” the audience can actually see what is going on inside. Other actors who lack this ability end up seeming flat, and the audience only gets the surface (which might of itself be pleasing – many such actors are physically attractive and may have great smiles). They may convey to the audience a nice picture but no emotional content. Whatever it is in this invisible communication, it is harder to pin down in writers and artists. As I said, there’s a lot of “This works” or “That doesn’t work” in our responses to creative works. Additionally, individual creators seem to have some sort of internal signature that identifies the work as something from a specific creator. It is that unique touch that lets someone say at a glance of a painting, “That’s a Van Gogh,” “That’s a Rembrandt,” “That’s a Picasso,” “That’s a Hirshfeld.” Something similar can occur in writers as well: Hemingway’s prose is different from Faulkner’s; Robert Howard’s prose is different than that of his pastichers. Years ago, I read a book titled SENTICS, by Dr. Manfred Clynes. Clynes developed a finger pressure sensor that allowed him to measure emotional response to stimuli. It turned out that there were specific pressure signatures for specific basic emotions and the responses were consistent cross-culturally and across the sexes (meaning men and women are not really that different in their responses). Clynes then extended his research to human response to music. In doing so, he discovered that listeners would create similar pressure patterns in response to different works from a specific composer, even if they were unfamiliar with the works. And, by and large, the musical work created a consistent response in listeners. This meant that an American, a Japanese, a rural African each listening to a specific work would generate pressure signatures with a pattern distinctive to that composer. Apparently, the only major differences occurred when the listener was a strong individualist with his own distinct response to music. Conductor Leopold Stokowski frequently put his own stamp on works he conducted, and this showed up in his responses in Clynes’ studies (Clynes knew many notables in the classical music world). Reading Clynes’ studies gave me a lot to think about in this matter of the “invisible communication” in creative works. The fact that Clynes found a way to measure emotional response and that the results could be consistent and reproducible (an important factor in establishing a truly scientific measure), made me much more certain about the aspect of objective evaluation of art. Apparently, evaluation of creative works is NOT “just a matter of opinion.” If it was possible to measure emotional response to music, I extrapolated that it could also be done for visual and textual art. My point is (before I get sidetracked into issues of objective evaluations of art and literature) that it was now obvious that “something invisible and consistent” does indeed go on in art. And that something touches our emotional responses. We DO communicate something in our works (beyond the obvious intent of the art or storytelling), and the response of the audience will depend on (1) how much we (the creator) “put into” the work and (2) how much the specific audience member responds to our particular emotional brew. This is where distinctions between a Debussy lover and a Wagner or Philip Glass lover come in: neither listener is more right than the other, they are just preferring different emotional responses. Do some creators put into their work and “invisible something” that other might find repellant? Oh, yes. It is apparently a reflection of some attitude or outlook on the part of the creator that generates a negative response in segments of the audience. And that, perhaps, is one of the conclusions one can draw from Clynes’ studies: art (be it music, visual arts or writings) is more revealing of the artist’s own nature than is generally acknowledged. And when we say of some creative work “It speaks to me,” we are being much less figurative than we imagine. Art talks and it reveals the secrets of its creator. (Isn’t that a scary thought for the reclusive artist? 😀 ) Sarah Beach trifles with artwork, but applies herself to writing with much more diligence. She’s the author of THE SCRIBBLER’S GUIDE TO THE LAND OF MYTH, and uses material from the book as springboards for posts on her blog.

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Guest Blog: David Lloyd at the Funchal, Madeira Book Fair by Roberto Macedo Alves

Colleen Doran — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:26:06 +0000

Roberto Macedo Alves is on a one-man mission to bring comics to the Portugeuse island of Madeira, which is one of the loveliest places I have ever been. Incredible scenery, very friendly people, and many enthusiastic comics readers! An absolute delight. Roberto began bringing comics creators to the Funchal Book Fair a few years ago, and this year’s guest was David Lloyd, artist of V for Vendetta. Roberto’s shop is Setima Dimensao, and his blog is here, where you can see more pictures of the event. David Lloyd’s website is here. I’m sorry, but had no luck finding a direct link to artist Marco Avoletta. If anyone has that info, please forward and I will link. Thank you to Roberto for taking the time to write about the adventure! Sequential art as part of a Book Fair in the middle of the ocean. ———————————————————————– Just to provide a little bit of context, I live in a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic. A pretty volcanic rock with an area of 768 square kilometers (some 296.53 square miles) with 250,000 inhabitants and no comic reading tradition or respect for the art form. At least until 2004, when I decided to begin the charming life of an entrepreneur and decided to open the only comic book store in the island. Since the opening day, my objective was never just to sell books. Where is the fun in that? Richard Branson, one of my childhood idols, said: “Entrepreneurship is not just about making a lot of money. It’s about making a difference in a field that excites you in life”. Now that’s what I wanted. Even if that meant that I was stuck in the middle of the atlantic selling stuff that the local cultural leaders considered “unworthy and disposable kiddie fare”. But with the help of my mother and friends, and the kindness of strangers, we grew and gathered a group of people interested in drawing comics – and started doing workshops, drawing sessions, drawing marathons, comics exhibitions and TV appearances. After a couple of years, comics (or Sequential Art, as I insist in calling it) started to get a little bit of respect as a valid art form. We gathered a nice group of aspiring artists that are always eager to express themselves using that medium, and we started to get noticed in relevant local cultural events, like our yearly book fair, that was supposed to be a celebration of reading – not just an excuse to sell cheaper books. Anyway, after a couple of years, I found myself with the power (and responsibility) of choosing a comic book creator to bring as a guest to the Fair. The organizers of the Book Fair considered that comics were getting a considerable amount of media attention, and we could bring a creator of my choosing to the Fair (that was last year, in 2008), for autograph sessions, small panels, talk with the fans, etc. Apparently, we became a visible (and vocal) group in those book-related events. A big differences from the “comics are for dumb kids” early days. “I will bring you more than just a comic book artist. I will invite a sequential artist!”, I said. “Besides the pretentiousness of the title… what is the difference?”, the organizers asked. To me, there was a world of difference. A comic book artist just draws comic books. Like, someone who draws Spider-man for 30 years or something (not that there is anything wrong with that – I like Spider-man comics) – but I was struggling so hard to get comics respected as a serious art form that I wanted someone to confirm that respectability I was talking about. I wanted to invite someone whose work was not only overwhelmingly brilliant, but also inspiring for our small group of aspiring artists. Someone who could show through their work the real possibilities of the medium to those unfamiliar with it. My first thoughts went to A DISTANT SOIL of course: it was exciting, carefully crafted, very intelligent science fiction/fantasy as good as any written novel. Colleen was gracious enough to accept our invitation and was the first international sequential artist that visited our humble event in 2008. For the first time, our aspiring artists had the opportunity to talk and hang out with a living, breathing, talented and witty comic creator. Until recently, our small group was ashamed to admit they enjoyed comics – at least in public. And our female artists still saw the comic book world as something dominated by males. This was the perfect opportunity to show them that there were magnificent female creators in the comic book world. The visit was a resounding success. The media, politicians, organizers and public loved Colleen – and I was again given authorization to decide who was going to be the guest for 2009. Again, the choice was obvious, now that I had the pleasure to talk and hang out with an artist I admire, I wanted to move to the other book that had changed my life: V FOR VENDETTA! It was the first book that moved me to tears. I was 17 when I read it. Back then, all I read were Disney and Marvel comics, but always felt that we could do serious stuff with comics – and V showed me exactly how that was to be done. It taught me a lesson about integrity that would change my life, literally. So, I wanted to have David Lloyd as our second international guest. Not just for the enjoyment and inspiration of the local comic community, but also as the ultimate dream of a comic fan: be able to talk and hang out with a creator that changed our lives, as happened with Colleen. Pictured: Roberto Macedo Alves with David Lloyd and Marco Avoletta David Lloyd is charming and a wonderful gentleman. At first, I was intimidated… I mean, he created one of the most important works I’ve ever read (to me, V FOR VENDETTA is as important to me as Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD or Orwell’s 1984 – as dystopian futures scenarios) – and his most recent book, KICKBACK is a clever, interesting and serious “crime noir” book, better than any other crime novel I’ve ever read. His visit was really important, because he helped to confirm to the local community that comics can be serious and respectable as a form of art. This has been a hard, ongoing battle. You wouldn’t believe how many high-brow idiots criticize comics and stress about the “problems and limitations of mixing words and pictures”. I usually do some intellectual show-off and reply that a good comic can be as expressive as the GASPARD DE LA NUIT. If they don’t know what the GASPARD DE LA NUIT is, I usually reply with a snobby “you are not a very cultured person, are you? So, you have no right to criticize sequential art until you get a proper knowledge of the history of western art”. And yes, I know it is a misleading argument. GASPARD DE LA NUIT is a curious piano piece by Maurice Ravel. This year, besides the autograph sessions and such, we had a very interesting Q&A public session, with David Lloyd and Italian artist Marco Avoletta, so we had some sort of conversation with two different generations of comic creators. It was glorious. And, as tradition during the fair, we had official lunch with the head organizer, that always gets me slightly nervous. The director of the organization is a person I really admire, an essential figure of our local (and national) cultural panorama – and he also was one of the Captains that planned the Portuguese revolution of 1974, that ended the Dictatorship and brought democracy to Portugal. I was not even born when the revolution happened and usually feel like a clumsy child while trying to have a witty but smart conversation with living legends. (in this case, Lloyd and Faria Paulino). During that lunch, we had some escargot, which I never tasted before and was very distracting, because every time I poked one of the tiny tjhings with the toothpick, the minuscule mouth of the dead creature would just gape at me. Ew. Try to get concentrated on a conversation with snails screaming silently at you every time you poke them. But besides the escargot fun and the cultural events and the interviews and the serious relevant moments, like the talk “How I Got Into This Crazy Business and Ended Up Bringing V FOR VENDETTA To The World” by David Lloyd, that gave us a wonderful insight about the creation of such a seminal work and even how the inspiration for Valerie Page appeared – we also had some mindless moments of fun, like a Cosplay day with our other guest, portuguese creator Roberto Gomes, and one of our 12-Hours-of-comic-creation marathons. The Book fair just ended last week, and we had lots of fun and I can’t thank enough Colleen and David for accepting our invitation. As I said before, as a retailer, I want to do more than just sell books and make a profit. That is important, but I also want to have fun, to have a community of young talented people that enjoy expressing themselves and show that the clichéd ideas of dumb youngsters hooked on Playstation games is not as true as many people think. We live in a small place that seems limited and encasing and surrounded with water, and probably many people never heard of our island, but little by little, battle by battle, our young group of comic creators are getting new respectability and new opportunities – and ways to learn important lessons from those artists we admire. Geography is not a limitation anymore.

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WHY KIRK IS MYTHIC AND PICARD IS NOT Guest Blog by Sarah Beach

Colleen Doran — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:59:37 +0000

With the arrival of the new STAR TREK movie, the natures of the various characters of the STAR TREK universe have become ripe for new discussions. Fans of NEXT GENERATION have often bickered with fans of the Original Series as to whether Kirk or Picard is the better Captain. There are fans who prefer DEEP SPACE 9 over VOYAGER. There are even (though I’m not sure why) fans of ENTERPRISE. I’m not trying to set up an argument about which series is better, particularly not between the Original Series and NEXT GENERATION. And I am certainly not out to say that of the two series a person should prefer one series over the other. But…. On the most basic level, Kirk has become a mythic figure while Picard remains just the Leader-Hero of a series of stories. Let’s start with the points where Kirk and Picard are similar. Both are Starship Captains (Kirk’s later rank of Admiral is beside the point), who command considerable respect from their crews. They are both highly competent at their jobs. These qualitites make them both worthy of our attention as the heroes of their cycles of stories. So what makes the difference? Kirk is brash, roguish, not by-the-book; he is passionate, unconventional and egotistical. Picard is controlled, precise, knows protocol backward and forward; he is committed, but emotionally reserved, and although he has a strong ego, he is not the egotist Kirk is. Is there enough in those characteristics to justify my saying Kirk is mythic and Picard is not? There are several archetypes which can bulk up a character to mythic stature. Because the archetypes are present in even ordinary characters, it is not the simple presence of a type which make one mythic. It is the particular mix of types and the importance of the character in the story. For starters then, we can agree that both Kirk and Picard are important for their stories. They are, basically, the archetype of the Hero, the central character. That of itself will not elevate either to the level of mythic figure. They are both also leaders, what I have labeled as Rulers (in my book THE SCRIBBLER’S GUIDE TO THE LAND OF MYTH). As Rulers, they frequently make judgements of their followers and of others they encounter, making decisions about what should happen. Again, these are qualities found in many core characters and are not quite enough to boost either into the realm of mythic figures. It is the next level of characteristics that starts putting distance between the characters. In addition to the ruler, one of a secondary set of character archetypes I developed is the one I call the Transformer. The Transformer is one who makes things change, often by his actions, but also simply by being who he is in a particular setting. Things change around a Transformer, simply because he is there, whether by his actions or not. This is where Kirk starts to edge out Picard. Yes, there are stories where Picard works a change in circumstances, but it is usually not because he wants to change things or even because he is merely present. Picard often starts from a position of attempting to preserve the status quo. In part, because the writers wanted to take a different approach with NEXT GENERATION, Picard frequently tries to abide by the Federation Prime Directive (of non-interference with other cultures). Kirk, on the other hand, is a natural walking disruptive force. His entrance to a scene changes the balance immediately. Things happen around him, becausehe is there. If Picard walks into a scene something might happen, but there is no certainty. If Kirk walks into a scene something definitely will happen. Still, is that enough to elevate Kirk to mythic stature? Perhaps not. There is, however, one final element that completes the tipping of the scale. Of the seven traditional character archetypes (Hero, Mentor, Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Shadow and Trickster), it is the Trickster who frequently acts as the Culture Hero in a society. Although the Trickster is often the smaller creature who has to find ways of besting larger adversaries, it is just those qualities that help Mythic Tricksters establish their cultures. For instance, the Polynesian Trickster Maui drew islands up out of the ocean floor for humans to live on, and he slowed down the sun so humans would have more time to do things. Of course, not all Tricksters come with the positive baggage of being a Culture Hero. Loki, of Norse mythology, is a malignant force, always trying to undercut the gods of Asgard. He is destructive and malevolent. This is where Kirk leaves Picard in the dust. Picard is the chess player, each move calculated and according to prescribed rules. Kirk is the poker player, who will outbluff his opponent even while holding a losing hand. The “only cadet to beat the Kobayashi Maru scenario.” The one who can be beaten down but not defeated. He will always look for the better alternative, even if it is not obvious. It comes down to the question of “Which one would you chose to save the world?” Many want to say Picard, because he is indeed a sterling character and worthy of admiration. But, if it is necessary to throw off convention to “save the day,” if it is necessary to leap blindly to get to the goal first, who do you look to? For one of these two, those sorts of actions are at the very core of his being and for the other it is not. In the race to save the crew, the world, the universe, it is James Tiberius Kirk for the win. And that is what makes Kirk mythic. Sarah’s previous guest blog entitled “Says the Screenwriter, Writing a Graphic Novel is Easy!” can be found here. About Sarah: Born to the rolling landscape of Michigan, I got transplanted to the flat coastal plains of Houston, Texas when I was 16. Retreating from the world (at least as much as an extrovert is capable of that), I began working on my writing during endless hours. Artwork continued to be an important recreation. Along the way, I earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s in English, and became a medieval scholar. However, Academia was not my cup of tea, so I eventually moved on to the entertainment business (and the mountains of Los Angeles). After 18 years of doing fact-checking for Jeopardy!, I’m now back to immersing myself in my own writing. And even the recreational artwork is coming back. In the midst of all that, I labored and brought forth THE SCRIBBLER’S GUIDE TO THE LAND OF MYTH, which involved four years of writing, research, and review of over 150 films and television episodes. The website for the book is here. My personal website devoted to broader writing interests can be found at Scribblerworks. Entire contents of this post copyright 2009 by Sarah Beach. Used with permission.

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Guest Blog: Julie Ditrich on Unlocking and Accessing the Darkness Within: 7 Keys for Comics Creators

Colleen Doran — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:28:05 +0000

[WARNING: Some comics, film and book plot spoilers ahead!] “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” Stephen King A few weeks ago at Australia’s Supanova (Brisbane) pop culture convention, I had the privilege of meeting US comics creator Jhonen Vasquez whose satirical work Johnny the Homicidal Maniac I greatly admire. Despite the fact that I’m not usually drawn to creative properties with the words “homicidal” or “maniac” in the title or indeed ones that hint at or overtly promise great acts of depravity, my business partner and artist Jozef Szekeres persuaded me to read it and I’m very grateful to him for doing so. Vasquez’s portrait of insanity in the form of a deranged serial killer was not only convincing but, in my estimation, was a multi-layered and brilliantly executed tour-de-force. Johnny is not quite my idea of the quintessential anti-hero, as his methods of dispatching victims would make even Dexter cringe. Yet in his quieter insular moments Johnny possesses a modicum of self-awareness and displays moments of a kind of distorted sweetness as he strives to find the meaning of life and ultimately find out who he is. In the ten minutes I spent gushing to Vasquez about the impact of the work on me, I asked him a question I’d been wondering while reading the series: “Did you do a lot of research on profiling and the psychology of serial killers or is this all you?” Vasquez paused for a moment and with a glint in his eye, which could have been interpreted in any number of ways, confessed, “It all came from me.” Vasquez’s revealing admission got me thinking again about something I’ve been grappling with for a long time – when my personal internal and seemingly benign archetypes include the healer and the seeker amongst others and when the genres I traditionally work in are fantasy or visionary (metaphysical) fiction, how do I step outside of my emotional comfort zone and into the darker side of myself in order to channel it into creative works? Outside of resorting to chemical means such as drugs and alcohol and the subsequent cliché scenario of spiralling down into a psychologically disturbed oblivion brought on by childhood trauma, I’ve identified seven practical keys that have helped me create some of the darker characters and moments in my own fiction work and that of the upcoming Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed comics series. These keys could prove useful for both comics writers and artists to harvest the darkness within and ultimately redirect it into their storytelling. Before we examine them, it’s important to discern the necessity of introducing darkness into your stories. The actual argument in favour of it is threefold: – Without going into abject darkness how can a character experience the light in forms such as love, joy and redemption, which invariably accompanies traditional happy-ending plots? – Without understanding the evil lengths an antagonist and his/her allies will go to in order to fulfil their objectives, how can we create obstacles and conflict for the protagonist’s journey? – And without these stark contrasts, how can we get readers/viewers to identify with the lead character/s and in the process give readers a visceral experience that evokes a large range of feelings and emotions (which is one of my success measurement tools about whether or not a work translates into a rich reading or filmic experience)? The reality is that outside of creating a fiction work for pure entertainment value, many of us choose to step into the darkness in our stories in order to challenge a society in denial and to expose controversial themes that in the past were commonly excised from our attention. The objective here is to introduce these issues not for titillation sake but to shine a spotlight on humanity’s evil-mongers and hopefully provide solutions and hope to the lost and forlorn spirits out there who relate to the characters and situations. Audiences and readers have also reached new levels of sophistication, and black-and-white portraits of good and evil just don’t cut it any more. Characters actually need to be multi-faceted. Some of the best examples of deep and complex characters I’ve come across in the last few years are on the television series Lost and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In comics and graphic novels, the aforementioned JtHM, as well as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (the serial killer convention was quite extraordinary!) But getting back to the seven practical keys that can help you access multiple parts of yourself… (1) Personal Experience Dredging up traumatic or dysfunctional personal experiences and using them as the foundation for story and/or art is the most obvious key. Australian comics creators Christian Read and Paul Abstruse’s graphic novel WitchKing is a case in point. It’s a veritable blood bath. I cringed over entire sequences while reading it. Having said that, it’s also a stellar piece of writing and is quite brilliantly illustrated. At its very core it’s a story about chronic bullying and the aftermath – that is, what happens when a victim fights back against his perpetrators. When I talked recently to Paul Abstruse (whose body of illustrated comics work is characterised by dark themes) about how he approached the script he said he is usually attracted to the murkier stuff because it often parallels his own difficult upbringing. He related to the WitchKing material so much so that in his own eyes he became the embodiment of a tortured artist who descended into his own personal hell in order to channel those experiences onto the canvas. While working on the art, he specifically remembers recalling instances of his own anger, shame, and resentment, which echoed aspects of the script and, in turn, helped him endow the artwork with a powerful energy. Similarly, Colleen Doran’s graphic novel A Distant Soil (Volume II): The Ascendant offers up what I consider is the most shocking and confronting scene in the entire four volumes. It comes in the form of a ritual known as “The Choosing”. The Ovanon, she writes about, don’t believe children have souls until they go through a ceremony, whereupon adults in the upper echelons of the society’s hierarchy capriciously decide who is worthy of a soul and who is not. Children become disposable objects and in some cases are offered up for sexual gratification and profound physical and emotional abuse. Colleen didn’t directly experience the horror of this first hand, but during her childhood she witnessed several incidents that left an indelible impression on her psyche and gave her the starting point to explore these ideas in her story. At a very young age Colleen recognised that children – the most helpless and vulnerable people in our society – were not valued as fully fledged human beings and often underwent a kind of devaluation process. This even happened in the court system. Punishment meted out to the transgressors of physical and emotional abuse against children was less than that given to offenders who had abused adults. Children who could not articulate their pain and who had undergone horrific trauma were relegated to the roles of second-class citizens with no rights. In particular, Colleen witnessed an incident where a little girl who had been starved and tortured was wrested out of her abusive family situation only to be returned to the same family after she had sufficiently recovered. The family then picked up their bags and moved – never to be seen or heard of again – and Colleen has always wondered what happened to that little girl. Justice in this case was not served, and merely served to reinforce in young Colleen’s eyes that there seemed to be an habitual violation of children’s essential humanity. Your emotional reactions to traumatic events (or even seemingly minor injustices) are all fodder for your stories and characters. And for those of you who feel vulnerable and anxious about exposing too much – just remember that characters are actually composites/collages/patchwork quilts (all these synonyms and more). Writers rarely duplicate the living exactly, but usually borrow facets or idiosyncrasies of themselves and others, then add part research and then part imagination and sew all these pieces together like Doctor Frankenstein sews together body parts from various corpses to create his monster. Using personal experience can ultimately be therapeutic and cathartic – the act of reconstituting your own demons and darkness and channelling them into your characters can be liberating and healing. (2) Introspection and Self Analysis This key is closely linked to personal experience (mentioned above) but differs in the method – it’s a conscious and active process of getting to know yourself and releasing blocks that may impede or in fact shut down your creative facilities. This process often requires an element of detachment where you become an observer of your inner and outer life as it unfolds. You ultimately become a student of yourself. In the first instance, I encourage writers to experience various therapies to release negative repressed emotions that may be causing creative blocks, do psych tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which identifies whether you’re an extrovert or introvert, are thinking or feeling oriented, intuitive or sensing, and perceiving or judging. Understand your archetypes (read Caroline Myss’s book Sacred Contracts for a comprehensive list) – these include advocate, warrior, rescuer, trickster and victim. Embrace the feminine and masculine traits you possess inside and identify how they manifest in your life. Examine your developmental journey through various ages. Strip away your barriers and lean into your authentic self so you can endow your characters with emotional honesty. If/when you experience emotions such as jealousy, obsession, rage, and resentment as a reaction to triggering incidents, ask yourself how you can translate them into words and pictures. Then ask yourself how characters could exhibit some of your personal characteristics, as well as traits that are alien to you, in various conflicts. Many creatives also talk about possessing a kind of split personality (not in the true sense of a Dissociative Identity Disorder but a disconnection nevertheless) – that is, they may find themselves participating in real life scenarios but also be observing (as if they’re outside themselves) at the same time. This observer part of them captures and imprints all the detail of the unfolding scene in their memory, and then, with a twist of the imagination, may play out that scene into several different takes with different resolutions. For example, a writer friend once told me that he cannot have an argument with his wife without his mind offering up several different simultaneously-dramatised scenarios about how the argument will unfold – in one she slams the door and drives away and the opposite end of the spectrum is that they tear off their clothes and make love on the floor there and then. Maybe we all need a dose of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now to keep us in the moment, but the simple truth is that this ability serves our profession and our creativity. (3) Create Boundaries – Honour Yourself and Your Readers Differentiate between who the character is and how they act and who you are and how you act, but also be aware of crossing any boundaries that may undermine, conflict or betray your personal values and your essential self. This is not about pro- or self-censorship: it’s about making conscious choices and having a vision and a message of what you want to say about yourself and your stories in the world. If you want to experiment with genre and story and darkness then that’s great – it will be a personal challenge and a process of self-discovery. However, if it means betraying a personal core truth or belief system then be aware of the implications for yourself and for your audience in the short and long term. A few years ago I attended a publishing conference in the USA, where one of the key speakers was Eric...

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